Chapter 4: Using Free AI APIs – Connect to GPT, DALL·E, and More
You’ve planned your AI tool—now it’s time to power it up. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to connect your tool to free AI APIs that handle text generation, image creation, translation, and more.
You don’t need advanced coding skills—just the right tools and some copy-paste knowledge.
🧠 What is an API?
An API (Application Programming Interface) allows two applications to talk to each other. In this case, your AI tool sends a request (like a user prompt) to the API, and the API responds (with a reply, image, summary, etc.).
Example:
- You send a prompt: “Write a blog intro about smartphones.”
- GPT API sends back: “Smartphones have transformed the way we live…”
🎯 Step 1: Choose a Free AI API
Here are some great free (or freemium) APIs to get started:
| API Name | Type | Free Option | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI GPT (via Poe or Hugging Face) | Text | Yes (limited) | Text generation |
| DALL·E (via Hugging Face) | Image | Yes | Image creation from text |
| Replicate.com | Multi | Yes | Image AI, voice AI, etc. |
| DeepAI | Multi | Yes | Summarization, images, detection |
| Gemini AI (Google) | Text | Yes | Text generation & conversation |
💡 Tip: Hugging Face is a great free source with dozens of hosted AI models.
🔐 Step 2: Get Your API Key
Most APIs require a key to use their services. This is like a password that lets your tool access the AI service.
- Sign up on the API platform (e.g., DeepAI, Hugging Face)
- Go to your account settings or dashboard
- Copy your API key
⚙️ Step 3: Test the API
Before adding it to your tool, test the API using:
- Postman (API testing tool)
- https://reqbin.com/
- Curl in browser extensions or console
Example for text generation (DeepAI):
bashCopyEditPOST https://api.deepai.org/api/text-generator
Headers: { "api-key": "your_api_key" }
Body: { "text": "Write a poem about rain." }
The API will return a response like:
jsonCopyEdit{
"output": "Rain whispers across the rooftops..."
}
🔧 Step 4: Use API in Your Tool (No-Code Option)
If you’re not a coder, you can still use APIs through no-code tools like:
- Pabbly Connect
- Make.com (Integromat)
- Zapier
- Glide (for mobile apps)
- Google Apps Script (for connecting to Sheets and Blogger)
You’ll just:
- Trigger the API when the user clicks a button
- Display or save the API response
- Add loading/wait logic (if needed)
🔁 Bonus: Looping APIs with Sheets or Blogger
Want to automate blog posting using AI?
- Use Google Sheets + Apps Script to send titles to GPT API and receive content
- Use Apps Script to post the response directly to Blogger
- This creates a fully automated AI-powered blog publishing system
🧠 Summary
Connecting your tool to a free AI API gives it real power. Whether it’s text, images, or voice—APIs are your bridge to world-class AI without building the models yourself.
🔗 Up Next:
👉 Chapter 5: Building the AI Tool with Google Sheets + Blogger (No-Code)
Tags: AI APIs, free GPT API, connect AI tools, Hugging Face, DALL·E, DeepAI, AI without coding
